A luminous memoir from the prize-winning poet - a story of love, heartbreak and coming of age, and a tender exploration of queer identity.

'Beautiful' Colm Toibin
'Rapturous' New York Times
'Extraordinary' Observer
'Stunning' Sunday Times

When Sean meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe depression, the couple comes face to face with crisis.

Wrestling with this, Sean Hewitt delves deep into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures and poets before him. From a nineteenth-century cemetery in Liverpool to the pine forests of Gothenburg, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of solace and hope.

All Down Darkness Wide is a mesmerising story of heartache and renewal, and a fearless exploration of a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds.

WINNER OF THE ROONEY PRIZE FOR IRISH LITERATURE 2022

'Extraordinarily beautiful... the best new work of non-fiction I've read in years' Sarah Perry

'Rigorous and sensual... Hewitt has forged a life-enhancing memoir' Spectator

About the Author
Sean Hewitt was born in 1990. He is the author of the poetry collection Tongues of Fire, which received the Laurel Prize and was shortlisted for many awards, including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards and for the Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Polari Book Prize. Hewitt lectures at Trinity College Dublin, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2022, he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.

Reviews
A stunning meditation on love and heartbreak, this feels like an essential work of the new Irish queer canon * Sunday Times *
A remarkable memoir of love and sorrow * Observer *
We are witnessing the emergence of a major talent... stunning. A space will need to be made on the Queer Classics shelf * Irish Independent *
Intensely original... some of the most beautiful prose I've read in years -- Alexander Chee * The Atlantic *
Exquisitely written... a fervent appeal for presence and belonging -- Claire Messud * Harper's Magazine *



Book Information
ISBN 9781529114478
Author Sean Hewitt
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 200g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 16mm